Are Most Left-Right TV Pundit Interviews Scripted?

I don't know, but I'd like to.

Example: when guests with opposing viewpoints appear on Crossfire or Hardball, are there any discussions ahead of time between the host's staff and the guests as to what will be discussed? Something like, "Kristina, Coulter is going to say that the Dems attacking bush is unpatriotic, so you'll want to respond. Ann, van der Heuvel will say that even though you're really a guy in drag, that doesn't make you any less of a flaming *unt."

Or, are there ever instances of the host saying, "don't bring up dubya and _____. We're not discussing that tonight."?

Anybody out there who's done one of these (Will Pitt?) who can shed some light on the subject.

This would be on about all of those shows, including Sunday morning talk shows and late night comedy (or whatever Leno is).

Jerry's people coach the side-show geeks in advance using simple and clear priciples and rules of discourse in order to create and maintain the "seeming" chaos and conflict on the stage.

The left-right badanage on entertainment news is directed and improvised the same way, but with great(er) sophistication.

Remember it's all professional wrestling now. And wrestling is still fake.

One of the signs of a people ready for fascism is an open taste for entertainments that appeals to their basest instincts.

The public audience accepts the premise that the complexities of our world can be represented and performed for us as a simple polarity between two warring forces -- well that's the way a toddler understands the world, isn't it?

Not only is the dialectic discourse largely scripted, so is the binary world view that American's are expected (and pressured) to internalize as the only valid one.

"Umm...Yer either with us er aginst us!"
-Emperor Punchy

Such as when someone is asked an obscure question and they can instantly quote stats and polling numbers. Please.

isn't he a good infotainer?